The Dutch love their fries… each person eats 40-50 portions every year. We take fries very seriously, frying them twice to make sure they are perfectly cooked and crumbly on the inside, but also deliciously crispy on the outside!
If you’ve had French Fries in the Netherlands, at a street vendor, most likely you had “frietsaus” or “Fries sauce.” Something that looks like mayonnaise, but is actually a creamier, and a smoother, less tangy flavor. If you cannot find this sauce near you, my recipe gets you that same great flavor and texture!
Frietje Met: Dutch French Fries with Homemade Fries Sauce
These twice-fried French Fries are perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy/crumbly on the inside. Paired with "frietsaus" or "Dutch Fries Sauce," Everything is homemade! Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction was wrong.... they don't put mayonnaise on French Fries in Holland, they put "Frietsaus" or "Fries sauce" on them. It looks like mayo, but is actually a bit sweeter, smoother, and lower in fat.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Prepare the Potatoes
- Peel and cut the potatoes in sticks, 1cm thick (between 0.25 and 0.5 inches). I use a mandoline for this, but you can cut it with a chef's knife as well.
- Fill a large bowl put cold water, with 1tsp of salt. Add the cut potatoes, and let it sit for at least 1 hour, but as long as overnight. This will drain the starch out of the potatoes, which will make for the perfect texture. The water will end up looking cloudy.
Prepare the Fries Sauce
- Mix the Xanthan gum through the oil.
- Add the egg yolk, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, sugar, and mustard in a tall container that is wide enough to fit your immersion blender.
- Pour in the water, be careful not to break the yolk
- Carefully add the oil/Xanthan gum mixture. Make sure all the Xanthan gum makes it into the container.
- Put the head of your immersion blender over the egg yolk, and turn it on. Slowly move up and down until fully emulsified.If the sauce is still too thin, you can add extra Xanthan gum in a small amount of oil, and mix it through with the immersion blender. Pour the sauce into a squeeze bottle, and put it in the fridge.The total is approximately 250ml / 1 cup.
Making the Fries
- Pour the oil in your large pan, or electric fryer, and preheat it to 160ºC (320F).
- Pour the potatoes out of the bowl, into a colander, and rinse them thoroughly.
- Using a tea towel, or paper towels, dry the potatoes really well. You want to make sure they are completely dry before they go into the oil.
- When the oil is at 160ºC (320F), put in your fries. Make sure not to crowd your pan/basket. It's better to do it in a few batches than to crowd your pan/basket. Fry them for 4 Minutes.
- Put the cooked fries on an inverted rack on top of a paper towel to cool, and drain.
- Repeat for the remaining potatoes. Make sure the oil is back to temperature before putting in the next batch.
- Let the fried potatoes come to room temperature.
- Clean out any pieces of potato from the oil, then heat it up to 180ºC (360F)
- Fry the fries a second time. Again, be careful not to overcrowd your pan/basket. Cook them until they are golden brown.
- Remove them from the pot/oil, and let the oil drain off. Then toss them with salt before serving. You want to salt them while they are hot.
- Repeat for the remaining fries.
Plating
- Serve the Fries with some of your homemade Fries Sauce.Or, make any of these combinations:
- Special: Fries Sauce, Spicy Ketchup, and chopped raw onion
- War: Fries Sauce, Peanut Sauce, and optionally, chopped raw onion
